Managing the Media After a Suicide

The news media are well aware that suicide sells, so managing the print, broadcast and social media in the aftermath of a death by suicide is a daunting challenge. Adding to the challenge are the school community members who are eager to share their opinions through all means possible.

To deal with the crush of local, national and international attention, we shared well-established media guidelines with reporters and editors. The primary prescriptions were:

• Avoid sensationalistic headlines or prominent placement;
• Avoid photos/videos of the location or method of suicide and stick to school or family photos;
• Do not use terms such as “committed suicide” or “successful” suicide attempt. Use “died by suicide;”
• Do not report on suicide notes or victims’ social media posts; and
• Mention resources in every story, such as the national suicide prevention lifeline and local resources.

A comprehensive resource, developed by a collaboration with several international suicide prevention and public health organizations, schools of journalism and media organizations (and available at ReportingonSuicide.org), offers recommendations for reporting suicides.

Our Missteps

While the local print and online media generally used proper terminology, refrained from making the student’s death heroic and did not conduct interviews on school grounds, the broadcast and national media were far less cooperative. We saw magazine covers depicting depressed students and featuring gouging headers, such as “Why are Palo Alto kids killing themselves?” full-page photos of the train tracks and glaring, sensationalized lead-ins on television.

In retrospect, we committed several missteps with the media by being too accommodating in granting interviews and hoping their work would show the healing more than the hurt. Although we emphasized hope, recovery and active mental health and wellness supports, the national and international media preferred the blame game. Even the publisher of our local newspaper continued to print op-ed pieces that fed the paper’s practice of publishing anonymous comments at the end of articles and columns, many of which were vitriolic in blaming the schools. To this day, the national news coverage and anonymous blogging cast a tangible pall of negativity.

As for the school community, a few individuals did not follow our requested protocol of having the board president and superintendent act as spokespersons and granted radio and print interviews. Moreover, as expected, many social media posts reflected ignorance of media guidelines.

One bright spot, however, was that many students’ posts were positive, healing and hopeful. Our students were the most exemplary ambassadors for support and well-being.

We have since reviewed and reinforced our protocols and directed all requests for access and information through our communications coordinator, a direct-line report to the superintendent. While all media cannot be managed, clear protocols and advance planning can lead to media coverage that identifies helpful resources that might prevent further suicides rather than unwittingly fostering suicidal ideation.